Mia's Top 10

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Weekly, Gma R blocks out her Thursdays to spoil Mia (and her mom) with activities, fun crafts, and treats.  

Here are Mia & Gma returning from a "leaf hunt." 

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Mia was at the tail end of our wood-chopping assembly line last week.  

With our prematurely chilly weather, we have already gone through a third of that weekend's efforts!  

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A mug-shot of my lipstick thief:

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Braving the balance beam at gymnastics:

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When I was small and needed glasses, my mom chose a GIANT pair of tortoise shell frames to match her own not-so-flattering set.  Mia and I found both pairs of said glasses the other day:

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Mia fancies herself quite the horsewoman and trotts around on Aunt Jacque's little Daisy like it's no big deal.

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Poor June is often victimized by Mia's interest in high-fashion. 

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David took this picture on one of our last sunny evenings of the year.  

Times like this one make heaven feel tangible.  

Harvest Time!

We have been reaping the rewards of our fun garden this month!  

It is so much more enjoyable having a garden helper who is in continually in awe over the progress each plant makes.  Every day when we would go to check on and weed the garden, Mia would go into ecstasies over the size of our pumpkins. Now we get to revel in our squash glory as we pile them high next to our front door and make all sorts of soups, breads, cookies, etc.

What a fabulous time of year!

Our nine surviving butternuts:

One of my two beautiful eggplants.  I could hardly bring myself to pick these--  they were so lovely.  Alas, both were sacrificed to a tasty batch of babaganoush. 

I often find some pretty scary photos of myself, parts of my self (Mia's eye-level does not produce the most flattering perspective), and other things...courtesy of Mia...on my phone, and have to spend a lot of time deleting.  This one I found, however, is in focus and captures me in true, weathered-looking form: sweet t-shirt, two-day old hair, sunshine wrinkles, and dirt under my nails!  

Most of the produce we'd gather would look like this before reaching the table.  For the longest time I was feeling panicky about a large rodent hovering around our house, until I caught Mia in the act of tasting each individual zucchini. It also happened to our cucumbers, green beans, and carrots. An attempt was made on an eggplant and an okra. And for the MONSTROUS size of our tomato plant (it was grown from seed and took over a 10 ft by 4 ft space), we ended up with a relatively small number of ripe tomatoes because of this sneaky girl. I think I managed to get TWO unmarked zucchinis into a meal and the rest just bore some extra love. 

It was a chore keeping some of the root veggies in the ground until full maturity.  I found Mia at the sink one morning in early summer washing this carrot she had prematurely harvested.

It was a solemn moment when we determined that our two last beets were ready.  Mia got to do the honors.

June's Top 10

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This sweet disposition combined with this darling age makes for easy smiles and arm flapping.

We wholly abuse this fact!

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While taking inventory of my mom's Halloween costume stash, June got involved...  

She looked like an American Girl doll.  

It was a little creepy and Mia didn't like it, but I was in tears--so funny!

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June prefers to feed herself.  She stubbornly seals her lips to adult-powered spoon feeding. 

It makes things complicated for mom, but her manual dexterity is highly advanced from all the exercise!

Whew! Too much hand to mouth exertion.

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Mia always feels very protective of June while at her frequent check-ups.  

This one was her first blood draw--  June was way tougher during the process than Mom and sis.

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Mia has a fetish with comparing feet.  She often expresses her pleasure over matching her

"brown-skin-chocolate" with June's "brown-skin-chocolate."  It makes mom happy too.

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June was born with much more hair than she has now.  Her head has grown, but her hair has not.  It is a new experience for us to deal with baby baldness.  (Mia's hair was visible in her ultrasound picture.) We didn't have a sun hat in this circumstance, but as always,

June was obliging and wore Mom's sweatshirt instead. 

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June has graduated to sitting in the BOB like a real girl...no more carseat modification = much more to see!

Mia's Top 10 + Post Script

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Painting:  

Most projects of this nature are productive and fun for about five minutes...until something goes wrong (in this case, the painting utensil bends slightly), frustration ensues, 

otherwise white walls become debauched, and developing artwork receives some extra texture.  

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The air suddenly became still and world was quiet... 

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Even though Dad & cousins were absent, 

Gpa R took Mia to the fair in an effort to maintain our annual tradition.

She stepped into her star-studded role with little effort.  

Fair fare:

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Living up her small-ness:

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Mia is taking a gymnastics class this year.  

Win-win: She is ecstatic about it, and it provides high-quality entertainment for Mom.

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All my effort teaching Mia to pump has been hopeless.  

I have exerted way too much energy with lots of exaggerated movement and countless "out & bend" demos. 

So, Dad still helps Mia achieve her "high-in-the-sky" goals.

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Feeding koi at a lovely little nursery by our house: 

P.S.

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Our weekly library story time...we love it when the parachute makes an appearance!

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Ta-dah!

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Mia takes her "studying" very seriously.  

Everyone around here seems to be busy with homework.

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During a classical concert from Aunt Arianna's symphony in the park, 

Mia decided to BUST her moves in an effort to liven up the Brahms. It worked!